- Author: Pamela S Kan-Rice
To increase awareness of how UC ANR research and extension is improving life for Californians, Strategic Communications has been posting about UC Cooperative Extension activities across social media.
Inspired in 2022 by the state government boosting ANR's budget to allow the hiring of more than 100 academics and support staff, Doralicia Garay, social media strategist, wanted to show legislators and other Californians how they benefit from ANR.
“The ‘Improving Lives in California' campaign is designed to showcase ANR research as well as those who deliver it by featuring compelling content and UC Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists,” Garay said.
She targeted Californians who were interested in agriculture, pests, environment, wildfire, water, youth development, and nutrition with paid campaigns as well as regular posts on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.
Between March 2022 and December 2023, UC ANR's “Improving Lives in California” campaign has reached more than 600,000 people and more than 21,000 people have engaged with the posts by sharing, liking or commenting across all platforms.
“The per-post engagement rate averaged 3.5% across all social media channels, which is almost twice the average rate per post,” Garay said.
Key elements of the campaign:
- Employee spotlights: Through a series of engaging profiles, we highlight our extension experts' unique journeys and expertise. By featuring their skills and contributions to research projects, we humanize our staff and inspire a sense of connection with our online community.
Examples:
tinyurl.com/23bjz4xr Brooke Latack
tinyurl.com/yxbmybp5 Ian Grettenberger
tinyurl.com/rndcn6uz AtefSwelam
- Short videos: Bite-sized videos featuring Cooperative Extension advisors are intended to simplify complex research projects and explain their relevance to all Californians. It's also a great opportunity for our audiences to get a sense of our researchers' personality.
Examples:
tinyurl.com/mr46w65s Srabani Das
tinyurl.com/bdf68sh5 Ramiro Lobo
Series of videos: instagram.com/ucanr/reels/?hl=en
- Social media takeovers: We take our audience on a virtual tour behind the scenes of our research facilities. Through carefully crafted multimedia content, we share what makes research and extension centers and county office locations unique, and how the infrastructure enables scientists to bring innovation to life.
Example:
tinyurl.com/272xh9h7 South Coast REC
- Research impact stories: We bring our research to life by illustrating its real-world impact on California communities. Through compelling narratives, we demonstrate how the dedication of UC ANR employees to research translates into positive change with advancements in agriculture, wildfire mitigation, water issues and more.
Examples:
tinyurl.com/5y2vn4rs Hamutahl Cohen
tinyurl.com/2e3bafh3 Houston Wilson, Jhalendra Rijal and David Haviland
- Interactive Q&A sessions: Live Q&A sessions on social media platforms encourage direct interaction between our experts and online audiences. Although social media reach has recently dipped for this type of content on Facebook, we successfully engaged with our Facebook audience in 2022 during a nutrition Q&A by retaining 80% of our live audience from start to finish.
Example:
tinyurl.com/52e7jy6s Mary Blackburn, JavierMiramontes andAba Ramirez
- Employee-generated content: Encouraging employees to share their own perspectives, experiences and insights on social media platforms promotes a sense of ownership and inclusivity. It also creates a vibrant online community that encourages our audiences to participate in conversations about research initiatives.
Example:
tinyurl.com/587jcxvf GerrySpinelli
- Hashtag campaign: "#ImprovingLivesinCA is a unique campaign hashtag that serves as a unifying element, allowing us to gather user-generated content and track the campaign's reach and engagement.
“By strategically highlighting our employees in the narrative of our research efforts, #ImprovingLivesinCA strengthens the UC ANR brand identity and positions our organization as a collaborative partner at the forefront of innovation,” Garay said. “This campaign represents a comprehensive approach to leveraging the power of social media to drive reach and engagement and serve our online community.”
You can follow UC ANR on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter),LinkedIn and YouTube.
- Author: Conor McCabe
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources recently held a nutrition Facebook Live webinar on how to find healthy food options that fit your lifestyle. Over the lunch break on April 7, participants heard from three UC ANR nutrition experts:
- Javier Miramontes; UC Extended Food and Nutrition Education Program nutrition and program supervisor for Orange County
- Aba Ramirez; UC adult EFNEP nutrition educator for Los Angeles County
- Mary Blackburn; UC Cooperative Extension Nutrition, Family and Consumer Sciences Advisor for Alameda County
The conversation began with Miramontes and Ramirez discussing the MyPlate nutrition plan, in which participants balance each meal with parts of each food group.
“Half of your plate should be made up of fruits and vegetables, but it's not a one-size-fits-all, as children and adults need different amounts of these foods,” said Ramirez.
The nutrition educators then highlighted choices from each of the food groups that are better choices than others for health.
“When choosing a protein source, make sure to look for low-fat meat options (i.e. grilled chicken instead of fried chicken) to reduce calorie intake,” Miramontes said. “Or try unsalted over salted nuts to cut down processed foods and sodium intake.”
As a follow-up, Blackburn addressed the tensions between a healthy diet and individuals' food intolerances and food allergies.
“A food allergy is when a food activates the person's immune system, whereas a food intolerance means someone will have difficulty digesting a food,” she explained.
People can have intolerances to foods from all across the MyPlate groups, including foods such as whole wheat bread, peanuts and tomatoes. This issue appears to be a growing problem, as Blackburn noted that “every year we see the number of (food intolerance) cases increasing and the number of foods belonging to these categories increasing.”
“We must take matters into our own hands,” Blackburn continued, “by selectively choosing foods and see how our bodies respond; if you find yourself consistently bloated after consuming a meal, it may be best practice to limit one of those foods for some time, and then see how your body responds.”
Blackburn described how individuals – by becoming their own body's scientists – can experiment with adding and removing different foods and seeing how their body responds.
Audience members were invited to ask questions of the speakers and to learn more about what they could do to achieve their own healthy food and nutrition goals.
A full recording of the webinar with captions is on Facebook. To date, the video has been viewed more than 23,000 times. Look for future UC ANR Facebook Lives on the UC ANR Facebook page that highlight the great work Extension educators are doing around California.